McCallister Being Honest

Game week two. Games on Thursday nights, Friday nights, and Saturday afternoons and evenings. A lot of football for me to get to. Plenty of fun and work. Yes – work.

Been around this high school football game for over 50 years. As a player, as both a head coach starting at 24 years old, and an assistant, and as a high school football talent evaluator.

Love the game and love helping young men get better. Love helping promote kids. But the bottom line has always been –it is a business. Somehow parents – it is a business.

Since I began this service over almost 30 years, the majority of colleges who purchased the service were Division 1 football schools. Although the top level has changed it’s name over the years. Think D1 – all the way from Big Ten to the MAC. With that said, I catered to the top level schools.

There were some D2 and D1AA, and even some D3 schools, but mostly D1. Then some recruiting services started surfacing. One service in the Youngstown area had some solid financial backing and put out more information. They were ahead in the video area.

All of this time, I still worked with the D1 level schools. Because of that, I really only focus on the top level high school players in Ohio. The full scholarship football schools, along with a few others, paid for my services.

I appreciate parents sending me HUDL Hi-lites videos. I try to watch all of them. But I do not always have the time to evaluate videos of players whom I feel are not D1 prospects. The colleges that use my service want to look at players who can possibly play for them.

From time to time, I get emails from people, not high school coaches, who have a couple of players that they want me to “take a look at.” At some point, I may check out their videos. Usually, I am aware of these guys. The point is – I may not get back to the person who wants me to check out “some guys.”

Over the years, I get emails, maybe two pages long. A parent will send me stats, awards, and clippings. I appreciate them. I also get season “updates.” I appreciate them. But I do not always read them. I do when I get the extra time. But I will not usually get back to the person who emailed the reports.

Please remember that MSR is not a recruiting service. No money involved. No promises. No – predictions on what level a player can play. No help in filling out financial aid forms. No long forms to fill out. Again – no money and no promises.

I cringe at the idea of “offers.” They getting to sound like a “joke” so often. Especially, if a player is a 9th or 10th grader. Simply too early. Many schools find ways to get out of an early offer. They now can use the “blue shirt” in addition to gray shirting.

I feel too many players get “blown up ‘” way too often and way too much. I try not to do this. False hope. Not fair to the player. Another reason that I am selective about whom I write about and whom I put in the Video Room.

Writing this blog is tough. I am making myself appear to be only working with the best players in Ohio, regardless of year in school. Listed 200 seniors to watch for this season. Last year, Ohio had about 115 players sign to D1 schools. Last year, my early 2019 Ohio list was over 600. Early list, remember.

So many ways to get exposure. More than an enough. I never look at Scouting Ohio, but he claims to be the best recruiting service in Ohio. I am sure that they could get exposure for Ohio high school football players who might not be D1 prospects. Again, I do not know much about their site, but he should be able to promote D3 prospects.

The McCallister Scouting Report has always been fun to do. Really believe that I promote Ohio high school football and the players who play the game. I do not cover every player in Ohio. My 2020 Ohio list general list is at about 450. Of course, that gets chopped down and added to as the season moves on.

Bottom line – McCallister Scouting Report is still a business – a kid’s business. But not a business that includes every football player in Ohio. Thanks for understanding.

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The McCallister Scouting Report is a scouting and evaluating service available to high school players throughout Ohio.
NO FEE to the college prospect.

About MSROhio

The McCallister Scouting Report concentrates only on the players in the state of Ohio. Because of this, John has built a rapport with many of the high school coaches across the state and talks with them on a year round basis about their top prospects.